Politician, Revolutionary Figure. Known as one of the "Eight Immortals," he played a key role in the Chinese Civil War and the 1949 Communist Cultural Revolution. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925 at the age of 17, and fought in the Second World War against Japanese occupation forces in China. Following the Communists rise to power in 1949, he served in a number of party leadership positions including finance minister, vice premier, deputy prime minister, chairman of the State Economic Commission and vice-chairman of the Party's Central Advisory Commission. Considered a staunch hardliner and anti-imperialist, he was a vocal supporter of the government's military crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of political opponents. At the time of his death at age 98, he was one of the oldest surviving members of the Chinese Communist Party. (bio by: Nils M. Solsvik Jr.)